Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago admitted that he underestimated Polish powerhouse Mamed Khalidov in the pair’s first meeting, a non-title fight in November 2009.

Khalidov stunned Santiago that night with a first round TKO win.

Santiago made sure lightning didn’t strike twice when the pair met in the main event of World Victory Road’s Sengoku Raiden Championships 12 event on Sunday in Tokyo, Japan.

More educated on his opponent and better prepared than he had been for the pair’s original meeting, Santiago attacked from the opening bell. But it would be the championship rounds where the American Top Team product would shine.

After a hotly contested opening 15 minutes, Khalidov began to wilt under the pressure while Santiago powered on. Controlling the action on the floor and the feet for the final 10 minutes, Santiago earned a unanimous decision to level the score with Khlaidov at 1-1 and keep the middleweight title firmly around his waist.

Santiago improves to 22-8 overall, and the champ now has a 6-1 record under the Sengoku banner. Khalidov falls to 20-4-1 and loses for the first time in 20 outings.

A rubber match certainly remains an option for the promotion in the future.

In the evening’s co-feature, UFC and PRIDE veteran Akihiro Gono earned a unanimous-decision over Swedish M-1 veteran Diego Gonzalez. The action was tight throughout the three-round affair, but the hometown fighter earned the nod.

Gono has now bounced back from a disappointing three-fight losing streak that saw him bounced from the UFC and devastated by Dan Hornbuckle to earn three-straight wins. Gono is now 32-15-7 overall and 3-1 for Sengoku. Meanwhile, Gonzalez, now 13-4, sees an eight-fight win streak come to a close with the result in his Sengoku debut.

Venezuela wrestler Maximo Blanco continued his run of striking wins with a 70-second mauling of of Korean submission whiz Chang Hyun Kim. “Armbar” found little room to breathe from the initial onslaught, and he succumbed to the pressure in a little more than a minute.

Kim was carried off on a stretcher after absorbing the damage, and he fell to 15-6 after losing for the first time in seven appearances. Meanwhile, Blanco improved to 5-2-1, and he has three-straight impressive stoppage wins.

Prior to the Blanco-Kim fight, Sengoku lightweight champion Mizuto Hirota announced he was vacating his title. Hirota is still recovering from injuries suffered in a New Year’s Eve bout with DREAM champ Shinya Aoki, though he said his arm should be healed by September.

Nova Uniao slugger Marlon Sandro delivered his second-straight knockout win since dropping a controversial split-decision to Michihiro Omigawa with a nine-second destruction of Tomonari Kanomata. A powerful right handed ended the contest before it ever truly began, and Kanomata was carried out on a stretcher.

Sandro’s past three victories have all come by first-round knockout and have come in a total of 3:01. Now 16-1 with a 4-1 mark for Sengoku, Sandro, the current featherweight King of Pancrase, appears primed for a potential June meeting with featherweight champion Masanori Kanehara. Kanomata falls to 15-5-5 in the loss, his first in five trips to the cage.

Despite giving up nearly 23 pounds in a heavyweight matchup with opponent Henry “Sentoryu” Miller, Japanese fighter Yoshihiro Nakao was able to please the crowd of his countrymen by earning a second-round TKO.

A PRIDE and K-1 veteran perhaps best-known for the 2005 pre-fight knockout he received courtesy of Heath Herring, the win is Nakao’s second-straight. “Kiss” is now 9-2 for his career and owns a 3-1 mark under the Sengoku banner. A stocky sumo stylist, Miller falls to 6-10, including a 1-3 mark in his past four outings. A five-time PRIDE veteran, “Sentoryu” was fighting for Sengoku for the first time.

After a spirited first round from “The Ninja of Love,” Canadian Nick Denis fell prey to a Yuji Hoshino guillotine choke just 47 seconds into the second frame.

With the win, Hoshino improved to 17-7-7, though he is dropped just one of his past 13 contests. Denis falls to just 2-2 in his past four contest, though his career record is still a respectable 9-2. Denis has yet to go to a decision in any of his 11 career contests.

Nova Uniao grappling ace Leonardo Santos made quick work of 14-year veteran Kiuma Kunioku in the evening’s second bout. Santos earned a submission win just 3:06 into the fight with a rear-naked choke.

With the win, the Brazilian improved to 7-3 on his career, a mark that includes six wins in his past seven trips to the cage. Four of those victories have come by submission. Meanwhile, Kunioka, a longtime Pancrase vet whose most recent prior appearance was in September 2008, falls to 34-23-9. Despite the numerous losses on his record Kunioka has been submitted just three times.

In the night’s opening bout, Shigeki Osawa bounced back from the first loss of his young career with a decision win over South Korean Kyung Ho Kang.

Osawa took the fight on all three judges’ cards and improved to 5-1 since his professional debut in April 2009. Meanwhile, Kang falls to 4-3 and has now dropped back-to-back decisions.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.